Atlantic Coast Conference Books

I read Stewart Mandel's stuff in Sports Illustrated. I like his take on college football. When he wrote this book, I knew that I had to have it. I was not disappointed.

He tackles all the weirdness that is college football. He makes as much sense of the BCS as a person can. He writes about rankings. He tells stories about the great programs and even delves a little bit into history.

All college football fans like to this that they are knowledgeable. Few of us are as knowledgeable as Stewart Mandel. After reading his book, I am a little closer.

I am very pleased with the book and the service provided!

Thanks

Forget the Smith and Street, SI or ESPN's preseason primers this is the only reading you'll need to do to understand this season, last season and a whole lot of others season yet to come.

I have been reading Mandel's columns and Mailbags for 3 years now and love his writing style. His book BP&TS has all of what makes his writing great on [...] plus even more detail than you can get into an online column.

The book provides a wonderful inside look at the politics of college football. You understand (kind of) the motivations of the bowl system after reading this book. It makes for fascinating reading.

I really like the snarky asides he puts into the book. The footnotes are almost more entertaining than the regular text.

Overall, an excellent buy and a good Christmas present for anyone on your Christmas list that loves college football.

"(NFL) scouts are to football what the third base coach is to baseball - an excuse for a whole bunch of old-timers to stay a part of the fraternity and collect a paycheck to boot." - Stewart Mandel

There are two U.S. sport seasons: Football and No Football. As far as I'm concerned, it's even a finer point than that: College Football and No College Football. BOWLS, POLLS & TATTERED SOULS tells me more than I thought I wanted to know about the collegiate game. But, now that I've read this book by "Sports Illustrated" writer Stewart Mandel, I'm so very glad that I did. It's a completely absorbing volume that I devoured over two days. I wish it was longer.

Mandel examines ten of college pigskin's greatest ongoing controversies, one per chapter:

1. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) - how we got to this impasse, who supports it and doesn't, and why it's not likely to change dramatically anytime soon.

2. The team ranking system - its evolution, politics, and how it's affected by the BCS.

3. The Heisman Trophy - its history, and why it's become a media exposure contest not necessarily based on playing ability.

4. The hiring and firing of coaches, particularly the latter - the growth of their salaries and the precariousness of their tenures (or "What have you done lately?").

5. Notre Dame - what makes this independent university so damn special that it has BCS equality with the Pac-10, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big East?

6. The recruiting of top high school players - the stand-alone spectacle it's become, and the impact of the Web.

7. The formation of, and school re-alignments with, conferences - it's all about money, particularly TV revenue $. (Say it ain't so, Joe!)

8. Post season bowls - their history, why there are so many, and the team motivation (or not) to participate.

9. NFL recruiting - the joke that it's become.

10. Scandals - who the perps are and why the NCAA doesn't necessarily have jurisdiction (much less care).

Mandel being an ultimate insider himself, his book should be required reading for all the insider-wannabe fan(atic)s who populate the off-field margins of the sport and who come off their couches in droves to demonstrate vociferously with torches, pitchforks, tar and feathers whenever their favorite teams, coaches, or players are perceived to have been criticized unfairly or gotten a raw deal in the polls or BCS standings. While BP&TS won't make such partisans more reasonable, it will perhaps raise their stridency level and make the collegiate football season even more deliciously confrontational and loud than it already is. I love it!

I myself have followed USC on and off - mostly off - since the late 60s when I numbered among my friends several who graduated from the university and got me interested in the Trojans' game at the time OJ was still a hero and not a bum. I've never been a fan(atic), but rather now follow the extraordinary career of Coach Pete Carroll and his gridiron squads much as one would intellectually admire the craftwork of an expert glass blower or master stonemason. In the doldrum years of such head coaches as Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett, I couldn't be bothered. I'm a Fair Weather Adherent, and proud of it. (Would I switch allegiance to the UCLA Bruins if their new coach proves as succesful as Uncle Pete? Most assuredly not. Who can root for a team whose colors include powder blue for Chrissakes!) But even I found BP&TS enormously satisfying and interesting for the insider knowledge it imparts and will better appreciate the moment at the beginning of the 2008 season when USC charges onto the field to beat the Bandini out of its first opponent, Virginia.

Fight On!

With the ACC expansion, it's a good idea to take a look back and see where the league has been to get an idea of where its going. "Border Wars: The First Fifty Years of Atlantic Coast Conference Football" does a fine job of detailing the first 50 years of ACC football. It's an unbiased, mostly season by season account of football only.

It's nice to read a book about the ACC that is NOT basketball centric. The book begins in 1953 and ends with the 2003 season. The format is to simply detail the events of the eras and seasons. Some chapters are detail one season only. There is one whole chapter devoted to Clemson's 1981 national title team, another devoted to G. Tech's national title in 1990. Other chapters report more on eras, highlighting the dominant team(s) in that era, like the chapter on the "Two team league from '82-89" about Maryland and Clemson's great 80's teams.

The book is very fair to Clemson, but just reading it will give you greater appreciation for the history of Maryland, UNC and Tech football. S. Carolina is barely mentioned, except for detailing why they left the ACC. The 90's dominance of Florida St. is told in an even-handed way as well.

The book would make a great read for yourself, or a holiday gift for an older person who lived through those years or a younger student who needs to know about great Duke teams, the Maryland conference dominance of the early 70's and why the 80's were so special for a Clemson fan.

The author discusses Clemson's probation fairly. There isn't a lot of prose in this book. It mostly gives details about coaches, teams, seasons, players and universities. Fortunately, there isn't a lot of nonsense about stadiums, fans, adminsitrations, or any other goofy controversies that we like to waste much of out time on. The book is just about football and for that reason alone I highly reccommend it.

Fun and easy to read, fascinating insights into an interesting conference and their football history.

The best Atlantic Coast Conference football history book that has ever come out......Powell does not place more emphasis on one school over another, and it is clear that he has done a massive amount of research.

This book is a MUST HAVE for longtime Atlantic Coast Conference football fans, and for fans of Florida State, you can relive all the glory years of the 90s in full detail with this book!

This book follows ACC basketball for a season. Very fun, like potato chips, hard to stop.

If you love ACC basketball and cannot get enough behind the scenes information about the coaches then you'll love this book.

Feinstein is amazing in that he has the clout to get into the locker rooms of each of the teams in this conference. Further still, the coaches and players never hold back on their thoughts. So you get one fantastic book, made up of hundreds of interesting basketball stories.

John Feinstein is a great writer, and this book is a look at one season in the ACC. He follows the teams around the conference for a season, giving us the background of the players and coaches and showing us the high and low points of the season.

For those of us who didn't go to one of these schools, it's a great way to learn about the basketball traditions of the conference, the history of the rivalries, the conference tournament, the arenas, the fans, etc.

Even if you're not an ACC fan, if you like college basketball you should enjoy this book.

'A March to Madness' follows the Atlantic Coast Conference through the 1996-97 season with Feinstein's signature behind the scenes access. For a fascinating contrast, read this book and then read Feinstein's also excellent 'The Last Amateurs' about the Partiot League. The Patriot League has more true student-athletes, healthier competition, and a lot less money.

'A March to Madness' portrays the high stakes, high pressure, big money atmosphere behind big-time college sports. The ACC is great college basketball conference, but this book tears away most of the romantic myths. The reader is, however, treated to behind the scenes looks at coaches like Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, and Gary Williams, as well as big name players like Vince Carter and Tim Duncan. It's especially interesting to read about Williams' agonies of doubt - this book was written 6 years before the Terps won the NCAA title.

Very highly recommended for readers who enjoy college basketball or John Feinstein.

I'm not a college hoops fan, but having come from the University of Connecticut (back when winning the NIT was a big deal for us), I figured I should try to read something about the sport that has come to define my alma mater.

I chose well. No, UConn is not a part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the subject of this season-long profile by John Feinstein. But Feinstein gives a solid appreciation for what college basketball is all about through the experiences of the coaches, players, refs, execs, and fans active in the ACC, which Feinstein claims is perhaps the most competitive b-ball conference in Division 1, year in and out. "Let down just the slightest bit and you become instant roadkill," he writes.

Feinstein gives you a sense of the different coaching styles at play here, from Dean Smith's traditional approach at North Carolina to Rick Barnes' cut-up quirkiness at Clemson to Dave Odom's huggy-bear avuncularity at Wake Forest. He relates tales about the history and folklore of the conference that make one feel like an instant Dick Vitale just from reading them, even if the terms "traveling" and "charging" make you flash on American Express. Most importantly, he writes a book that really opens up the world of college basketball to the more casual fan, or even curious non-fan.

That's what I liked the book. I read it, relished it, and enjoyed it with practically no knowledge of the sport going in. The way Feinstein writes about how different refs call different fouls, for example, was both illuminating and entertaining reading.

Feinstein also writes candidly about contracts, recruiting, marriages (failed and successful), burnout, death, and all the other factors that affect college coaches. Players are less the focus, and I get the feeling that Feinstein speaks from personal experience late in the book when he speculates about how an inability to relate to his young players may have moved Dean Smith to retire at 66. The absence of a players' perspective is unfortunate, but it kind of follows with the focus of the book being on the nine coaches, seven of whom gave Feinstein total access.

Feinstein obviously worked hard, and at times his narrative seems to be everywhere at once. Really great work on game descriptions, too, the way he uses them judiciously to punch up the storyline without letting them overtake the rest of the book.

Finally, this is a must-read for fans of Duke and their coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski comes off the best in this book, and while some charge Duke grad Feinstein with bias, the truth is Krzyzewski has the most to offer, both as a man and as a coach. The story of his "drawing the line" before a big game with North Carolina is worth the price of the book by itself. Between him and Dean Smith, I'm surprised Feinstein had time at all for poor Pat Kennedy of Florida State, but he works hard at balance.

What most comes across in this book is the amazing drive of the people involved. "If you're good enough to reach a goal, then there's still someplace else to go," says Maryland coach Gary Williams. "You don't just stop. You keep trying to be better."

There are minor holes in "A March To Madness," but what makes it great is the fact its author shares Williams' passion for excellence. There's no let up.